The reliability of power companies depends on many factors such as the weather, usage spikes, short circuits, accidents or other damage to transmission lines or power stations. Certain locations may be particularly prone to blackouts. Low lying areas may be susceptible to floods. Coastal areas may be susceptible to hurricanes. High usage geographic areas may be susceptible to rolling blackouts.
Any breaks in power utility service may be unacceptable to customers, and some businesses may have mission critical systems, such as computer systems in call centers or refrigerators in grocery stores, that rely on constant power. In other businesses such as hospitals, lives may be lost if the power to a respirator is interrupted. These customers may rely on a backup source of power.
One backup source of power is a generator. The generator, or multiple generators, is connected to the system in addition to the power utility service. Multiple points of failures exist with a generator system. In some examples, when any one of multiple devices experiences a failure, the entire generator system is shut down.